The cost of hotel rooms in New York City has increased by 8.5 percent after the local government turned hotels into shelters to provide temporary housing for so-called asylum seekers, forcing the availability of rooms to decrease and prices to go up.
In 2022, New York City signed a $980 million contract with HANYC, the Hotel Association, for the "Sanctuary Hotel Program," which pays hotels that agree to shelter migrants.
For instance, the Row NYC Hotel entered a $40 million deal to house migrants at $190 per night. Other hotels receive anywhere between $139 to $185 per night per room. To date, approximately 65,000 migrants are being accommodated in hotels as well as in tent dormitories and other shelters. (Related: NYC still provides FREE hotel rooms to ILLEGALS, despite Mayor Eric Adams claiming that the Big Apple is "out of room.")
According to CoStar, a commercial and residential real estate provider, the average rate of hotel rooms in the city has increased from $277.92 in 2022 to $301.61 in 2023. The city lost 16,532 hotel rooms to the shelter program, leaving only 121,677 rooms for travelers. This translates to 2,812 fewer rooms compared to pre-pandemic levels. In other words, the supply of available rooms for travelers decreased because NYC converted 135 out of 680 hotels into migrant shelters.
The decrease in room supply has coincided with a resurgence in tourism.
In 2023, NYC welcomed approximately 62.2 million visitors, the highest since the record 66.6 million in 2019. This surge in demand, coupled with the reduced room availability, has driven hotel rates to unprecedented levels. The average daily rate for a hotel stay in NYC climbed from $277.92 to $301.61 in 2023. Even during the first quarter of 2024, when prices typically decline, the average stay cost is $230.79 per night, a 6.7 percent increase from the same period in the previous year.
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Industry experts like Daniel H. Lesser, the co-founder of LW Hospitality Advisors, noted that the rising rates are a direct consequence of the reduced supply of hotel rooms.
"During peak periods, try getting a hotel on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night in midtown Manhattan, and, if you can, you could end up paying dearly," said Lesser. "It’s all supply-and-demand related, and the migrant rooms have reduced the amount of supply."
Disruption of short-term rentals also contributes to the increasing hotel costs
Aside from the impact of the migrant crisis on hotel availability, recent regulations targeting short-term rentals also play a crucial role to the rising prices.
For instance, in September 2023, NYC began enforcing Local Law 18, which seeks to curb the proliferation of short-term rentals like those listed on Airbnb. These short-term rentals, which previously accounted for over 10 percent of tourist accommodations, saw an 83 percent decline for stays under 30 days, dropping from 22,247 in August 2023 to just 3,705 by March 2024. The law has significantly disrupted the short-term rental market, with approximately 90 percent of remaining listings available only for longer stays.
The crackdown on short-term rentals, aggressively supported by the hotel industry and the hotel workers union, has driven up demand for hotel rooms. Analysts suggest this policy change has had a more substantial impact on hotel rates than the ongoing migrant crisis.
"It was expected," said Jamie Lane, a chief economist at AirDNA. "That is why the hotel lobby was pushing for this law to happen, so they could have higher rates and increase profitability of their properties."
Visit Migrants.news for more stories about the ongoing migrant crisis in America.
Watch this news report about Democratic New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jerry Nadler being heckled at Roosevelt Hotel.
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Stop by and see for yourself! NYC Mayor Adams invites Biden to visit "migrant hotel" in Big Apple.
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to spend another $2.4B on benefits for illegal immigrants.
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